Sunday, July 17, 2016

Seems like a smart concept though: using AR(
Augmented Reality )technology, creatures from the Pokémon universe are
overlaid on real-time camera images from a cell phone. As people move around
geographically in their neighborhoods, various creatures appear to be captured
if possible by playing the game.

I think it's pretty cool to integrate portable
technology with AR software to create a game like this, as it gets people out
and into the real world rather than sitting inside in one spot all day. I know
the value of getting out to see the city that I live in, as there's always
something fascinating in new to be observed if you're only paying attention.

Mind you, I think I'd be far more tempted to play
the game if it was like this:

July 12 - GARTHIM!!!!

It's finished! The most amazing Dark Crystal
costume ever!

Well, I mean, compared to the ones from the
original movie back in the 80s, but those were made of fiberglass and weighed
close to 100 pounds. Which would preclude their being worn anywhere outside of
film set due to the need for a crew to get the actors in and out of the suits,
not to mention the heat and fatigue of wearing them.

Have a look:

Ryan Wells Cosplay - look him up!

You can also watch a short video of the cost of
inaction, complete with sound effects and glowing eyes here - it looks and sounds amazing!

Ever since I saw The Dark Crystal as a young boy,
I wanted to create a Garthim costume, but lacked the skills to do so in a
satisfying fashion. Amazingly, someone else has completed that dream and shared
it with the world, for which I'm extraordinarily grateful. You can find Ryan
Wells Cosplay here.

It's also really, really cool.

July 13 - Whisper

Living near a main road sucks, most days: it's
noisy. Real noisy.

Passing traffic can include the rumble of trucks,
the throaty shouting of motorcycles or the blair of sirens of all kinds at all
times a day( one woke me this morning at 5 AM as a matter of fact )on top of
the noise of regular traffic at all hours a day.

Apart from moving or begging the landlord's in
the petition for better windows, what's one to do?

Enter the Whispernoise-canceling system,
designed for entire living spaces.

Similar to my Parrot Zik headphones, the Whisper
samples the noise levels in the local environment and produce soundwaves
designed to cancel those same sounds completely. It's comprised of two parts,
and exterior sound sampler and interior speaker in their system, which can be
placed on any flat surface but it works best on a window as it's in 2 parts:

I like the concept, and it seems ideally
suited to a small apartment like mine by a busy road. I'm also impressed with
the low cost of the device, which would be around $300 for the initial units to
be produced. This is the first product of its kind that I'm aware of that can
cancel noise inside an entire living space actively, rather than depending on less
effective and far costlier methods such as window insulation.

Unfortunately, the New Zealand-based company is
nowhere close to realizing their production goal of $785,00( $720K CAN )with
merely $15K raised so far and only 37 days to go in the Kickstarter campaign.
If it were up to me, I would fund this product in a heartbeat, as I would put
it to immediate use in my current apartment...

July 14 - Jack's Back!!

Whoa... there's going to be a new season of Samurai
Jack!

For those of you who aren't familiar with this
amazing animated series, Samurai Jack debuted on The Cartoon Network in
2001 and ran for four seasons. The writing and art were simply incredible for
an animated series at the time and in my opinion have not been surpassed since.
If you'd never seen Samurai Jack, I urge you to look through the clips
available on YouTube or pick up the first season on DVD which is widely
available. I hope that eventually it will make its way to Netflix as well and
so gain an even wider audience.

Here's the lowdown on the new season, which looks
like it will break new ground yet again in terms of art and storytelling for
animation:

July 15 - Heavy Thoughts

Many thoughts been running through my head this
week, with more than a few related to finance and how my future for the next
five years might take shape.

House? Nope. Car? Unlikely. Kids? Probably not.

So what is normal for me now?

In terms of a place to live, that seems to be a
rental for the foreseeable future, as Victoria is only getting more expensive
by the year with properties running well above $500,00 on average for a small
two-bedroom detached home. Even small apartments are going for around a quarter
million dollars and quite honestly I'll need to make twice as much as I do a
year in order to even think about a mortgage. Hence my interest in the
lower-cost tiny home movement, but I will go into that here, as I've discussed
it at length before in my blog.

It's been frustrating to me that I'm still
dragging along too much financial burden from my past currently and not
managing to be picked for a better government position despite the applications
of them putting in. Many others in my office have moved on to better things and
this is been weighing heavily on my mind as you might imagine. I'm extremely
well-qualified in terms of experience and I have a university degree, yet to
date none of my applications have had anything more than a 'Thanks for
applying' response to the positions I've been looking at in Victoria. It's
frustrating and depressing at times, but I tell myself that I've had a good job
for two years now that hasn't stressed me out nearly as much is any of my
previous jobs - plus I get to work with some wonderful people and go home on
time at the end of every day.

Going on about it at length here isn't going to
do me any good, so I won't.

I just have to hang in there and see what the
rest of 2016 brings me.

July 16 - My Regency Birthday!

What a great birthday today was! Even Google got in on the act:

My lady and I spent the morning getting ready for
the Regency Drama Garden Party at 11am:

You are one of the assembled cast of a Regency
Era Live-Action Role Play. You have a secret you must guard, a secret about another
guest you may use to your advantage, and an objective. Do you want to regain
the family fortune? Find out who your real father is? Make an advantageous
marriage for your daughter? Find a suitable husband?Come play in your own Jane Austen tale of intrigue,
secrets, reputation and genteel manners.This event will be a potluck picnic with croquet,
cards and tea party.

Early in the week, we had visited VictoriaCostumesand picked out costumes for ourselves to wear and today was the
day that we got to get into character! After getting dressed, we packed up some
light snacks of some crackers and cheese for lunch along with water, then
headed to the Gorge Park.

It was the perfect day to be outside, with the
occasional clouds keeping the heat down. We were located behind three immense
trees that provided shade for the entire afternoon's activities and the breezes
were perfect in the Park area next to the Gorge Waterway.

The event itself gathered steam and was soon in
full swing, with everyone interacting with one another in character. I played
Nathaniel Hayward, a man of passion, education and breeding, who served a
commission in the King's Navy but was now newly retired toenjoy other pursuits
on my estate . In order to 'win' my own part in the game, I was tasked with
finding out how my sister Juliet's brother had died recently, as it seemed that
it was under mysterious circumstances. My lady played Amelia Cluett: a servant,
the maid to Belle Nightengale and also her bosom friend. She was said to have a
beau but did not want to lose her position by becoming a wife.

Here's a shot of the entire group, in their gorgeous costume finery:

That's me in the front with the cane, and my lady's in the back

It was a blast being in character, though I chose
not to affect a British accent as there were several people there who were either English
or who could do far better accents than I could consistently put on. I spent much of
my afternoon the company of two bravos in particular, part of my social group(
as noted in my dossier ). The first was Isaac Fortescue, a retired soldier who
loved to go on about the great wars in India in service to crown and country(
peeking out from the back the top hat with the huge moustache in the pic above
). The second was Henry Hawkins, a dashing soldier recently returned to town
between postings to visit a few friends and charm this season's ladies( the
soldier on the far right, kneeling ). Both men play their characters to the
hilt, with Henry giving a perfect rendition of the charming gentleman soldier
the entire afternoon: I was left agog and did my best to give as good as I got
to his performance. What an incredible time I had creating stories with these two
fellows and the others that I interacted with during the course of the
afternoon!

By days end, I had married off my sister,
discovered who had poisoned her husband( she did! )and even won at a game of
croquet! My lady had also succeeded with her game and we both felt that the day
was a rousing success. There were smiles all around and everyone involved
thought it was simply the best time they've had been a long, long time.

In the evening, my lady and I dined at Il Terrazo, an Italian restaurant that is a hidden gem of Victoria and one I've
not yet visited in my nearly 10 years here. What an incredibly delicious meal
we each had! We were seated by the door, so that the benefit of the cool
breezes and the bright light made how crowded the restaurant was much easier to
take:

My birthday ended with our viewing of Romancing
The Stone, a 1984 action classic on laserdisc that my lady has never seen
in full, which surprised me. The movie looked spectacular on laserdisc, with
the new( to me )Pioneer V4400 putting in this stellar performance of a
perfect picture the entire time, though I did have to flip the disc halfway
through as it's not a double-sided player like my two defunct CLD-79 Elite
units.

What a glorious birthday!

July 17 - Balance

I took it easy today, more or less, as I was
tired. But happy!

Yesterday and today I didn't get a whole lot of
good rest, as I fell asleep around midnight and woke up around 5 AM both nights
- not my usual pattern. That's been happening more and more of late, as I've
mentioned before and I'm going to be taking some herbal sleep aids to try and
ensure that I can get back to at least six hours of uninterrupted sleep at
night.

After leisurely morning, my lady and I met my
parents for lunch at Mo:Lé. The conversation turned to memories of past trips
for the family and my lady was treated to many of our fondest memories of our
time spent in Florida, especially Disneyland. One thing I'd not known at the
time was that storyline for the Spaceship Earth attraction was created by none
other than Ray Bradbury, who was good friends with Walt Disney:

I've always admired Ray Bradbury for both his
storytelling chops and the fact that he never lost touch with his inner child,
which I've also somehow managed myself as most people who know me will attest
to. While I don't remember much about the details of the Spaceship Earth ride,
I'm going to see if I can find some footage somewhere to refresh my memory as
it's one more bit of Ray Bradbury's creative genius that I can enjoy.

I also got a belated birthday present today:

This will go FAST and look GOOD on the water!

Admittedly, I purchased it for myself from a
local model boat club member( the president, actually )as it was just sitting
on a shelf gathering dust and is a helluva lot better than anything I can get online or make myself( yet ). Unlike our Haulin Trawler, which does a pretty
good clip in the water as it is, this boat is designed for speed just like it's
full-size counterpart which could do up to 40 knots on the open ocean! I do
have to tidy it up a little as well as waterproof a few parts just to be safe,
but it's a magnificent model and I'm really looking forward to taking it out
for a drive next week down at the yacht pond.

I spent the rest of the late afternoon at home
cooling off, as I found of late that my heart rate tends to be quite elevated
the warmer I get. As matter of fact, my lady and I went for a evening walk last
night to cool off after the movie, which proved to be quite effective so I'll
be sure to keep that method in mind in the future when my heart rate tends to
get a bit too high.

It's been a great weekend and I'm off all this
coming week on vacation.

I plan to put it to good use each day by writing
a good chunk of the fourth draft of my first book. My notes are ready and I'm
eager to get the concepts edited into the manuscript. My book won't do me any good
if it's still sitting on my computer instead of making its way to a publisher
who might just decide it's the exact thing they were looking for all along.

BONUS: this was in the parkade today:

Magnum PI's Ferrari 306 - what a car!!!!

I'm immensely happy with how the first few days of my vacation have gone, despite my spiraling into stupid finance-related thoughts on Friday: no sense in spoiling my downtime this week thinking negatively about things. As you may imagine, I had a GREAT birthday, one of the best ever, and I am going to let that feeling of euphoria carry me through the week!